"Food Inc."

[Fruit_Tart.]

In my English class we watched this documentary called "Food Inc." It was sort of a revolt against factory made food around the U.S. because of the way factories produce some of their foods. The film showed lots of gross and disturbing videos that happened in the factories. Watching the film made me really think and consider reading all the labels of the foods I get and just think before I put something in my mouth. This film was something that I've never seen before and just seening the harm done to animals and the way the people are put into labor just making the food for Americans. It is now starting to make me question being a U.S. citizen that lets things like this happen.
I just wanted to know if anyone has watched this or seen something similar to animal abuse, food poisoning lawsuits, farming lawsuits, or just something to do with the way food coorporations are making our food.

[Mzor203]

This is exactly why I'm a vegetarian.

It used to be a phase I went in and out of. I used to claim it was because it was healthier for the environment (it still undeniably is, meat production generally results in 16 times the amount of energy as other products being used, this energy being divided between thing such as labor, materials, food, and pure energy) but I've always known about this abuse.

I went to a camp this summer run by Heifer International, which is a charity group. It wasn't what I went for, but just realizing how well the animals were treated there really brought out the fact that there were chickens in some of these factories being stuffed into tiny cages, cows being fed piles of genetically modified and antibiotic-ly enhanced slop, for lack of a better word.

The food industry is fucked. The rules aren't tight enough. Y'know what it takes to be able to call poultry "free-range"? Free range basically just means the chickens have access to a 20 ft. by 20 ft. area of outside grass. I don't think there's a limit to how many chickens are crammed into this space, but people look at the words "free range" and go "Hey! These chickens are treated well! We don't have to be guilty." Most of these production facilities cover up so well it's impossible to figure out what really goes on in them.

I'm not a softy vegetarian. Actually, I can hardly be called a vegetarian because I'll eat meat that's from local sources that I can verify treated the animals in a humane manner. I recognize the food chain and that humans are predators, we are near the top. But what happens to the meat you see at the supermarket? That's sick. Sick and twisted and I'm not having it.

Yay rants! Sorry, that probably went further than you expected. =D

[Fruit_Tart.]

this is great! wow. yeah i so agree with you, but im not turing vegetarian. i am starting to look at the sources of food and other ways to get them. i can surely get them locally because i live near farms and places that produce food without all the sick crap i saw in the video.

thanks for your input. :D that was like a bow to my present... sorta... hahah. :)

[Jess]

my brother showed me this...but I won't turn vegetarian lol :P

[trackstar9.875]

I'm certain what you saw is NOT "unique" to the United States; It happens around the world.

As for re-considering moving to another country, I believe Delta used a slogan once that went like this: Delta is ready when you are.

[Perseus]

I saw that movie early in the year in one of my classes. After having that class, I have stopped with fast food like McDonald's because of how terrible they treat the animals. Factory farms are just despicable; I wish Obama would try and reform this stuff. OSHA can't do shit since like no one works for them, lol.

[Fruit_Tart.]

my brother showed me this...but I won't turn vegetarian lol :P
hahaha... yeah me too. i love meat way too much. :P
I'm certain what you saw is NOT "unique" to the United States; It happens around the world.

As for re-considering moving to another country, I believe Delta used a slogan once that went like this: Delta is ready when you are.
yeah, but the video i saw was specifically for American food production. i have no idea how other world food coorporations do stuff like that.
I saw that movie early in the year in one of my classes. After having that class, I have stopped with fast food like McDonald's because of how terrible they treat the animals. Factory farms are just despicable; I wish Obama would try and reform this stuff. OSHA can't do shit since like no one works for them, lol.
yeah... i just wish we could like do something about it. if i could, i would, but i would need a lot of people to do it with me. hahaha... the class i saw the film also found it disturbing and maybe we can somehow start like that. who knows? maybe food coorporations will stop producing foods in unsafe environments.

[Peace God]

Ive heard about it...

I'm a vegetarian.
I dont eat meat. I dont eat at fast food restaurants. I avoid franchises/ chain restaurants as much as possible. I also avoid processed food as much as possible. I dont drink soda (just water...and sometimes milk or juice). I dont drink alcohol. I dont take any pharmaceutical products(unless its extremely necessary). However i fucking LOVE sour candy. :P

One of the main reasons why i eat the way i do is because i've never understood how so many people(especially americans) can just not give a fuck about where their food comes from, who made or whats in it.

The sad thing is that when people normally watch these movies they'll say "Eww Gross" or "Aww poor animals" and then not eat big macs for a week or so, while completely missing the point of improving health. If people really care, they should start supporting their local food markets and restaurants, stop buying from franchises and cook real food at home so that they and their families could be a lot healthier. Because if we instead, wait around for our gov't to pass legislation that will properly regulate big food businesses in the interest of american health...you might be waiting a long time.

...just my opinion though.

[Fruit_Tart.]

Ive heard about it...

I'm a vegetarian.
I dont eat meat. I dont eat at fast food restaurants. I avoid franchises/ chain restaurants as much as possible. I also avoid processed food as much as possible. I dont drink soda (just water...and sometimes milk or juice). I dont drink alcohol. I dont take any pharmaceutical products(unless its extremely necessary). However i fucking LOVE sour candy. :P

One of the main reasons why i eat the way i do is because i've never understood how so many people(especially americans) can just not give a fuck about where their food comes from, who made or whats in it.

The sad thing is that when people normally watch these movies they'll say "Eww Gross" or "Aww poor animals" and then not eat big macs for a week or so, while completely missing the point of improving health. If people really care, they should start supporting their local food markets and restaurants, stop buying from franchises and cook real food at home so that they and their families could be a lot healthier. Because if we instead, wait around for our gov't to pass legislation that will properly regulate big food businesses in the interest of american health...you might be waiting a long time.

...just my opinion though.
that's what i think too. here where i live, we have farm markets and other kinds of ways that i could get food without going to a supermarket. i think i'm going to start getting the foods i need from those places and if i do get produced food, i'll try to only get the organic foods. i may not do all that at once but as time goes on the food my family and i eat are going to be healthier.

[Perseus]

I If people really care, they should start supporting their local food markets and restaurants, stop buying from franchises and cook real food at home so that they and their families could be a lot healthier. Because if we instead, wait around for our gov't to pass legislation that will properly regulate big food businesses in the interest of american health...you might be waiting a long time.

...just my opinion though.

I try to get my parents to, but they never do. Butcher shop meat is so much better than grocery store meat since it's most likely not from a factory farm. I love meat and would never become a vegetarian because being vegetarian is silly(no offense intended there).

[Mzor203]

I try to get my parents to, but they never do. Butcher shop meat is so much better than grocery store meat since it's most likely not from a factory farm. I love meat and would never become a vegetarian because being vegetarian is silly(no offense intended there).

What you've all said is very... very arguable.

You really have no idea where meat comes from even from a butcher shop. I did research on the only one in town and found that it was meat that came from a source I know was certainly not wonderful. And you never know when a supplier is going to change, either. Unless their whole thing is being devoted to being morally correct, they're in it for the cash, and factory farms are cheap.

Now, about the vegetarians being silly: I;m wondering how the hell you came to this solution. I know eating meat is a way of life that's ingrained into most normal North Americans (well, and people from many other places as well), but let me break it down for you into individual arguments that someone would make as to why being a vegetarian is silly:

Meat is Essential to One's Diet:

Meat is certainly not essential to one's diet. Every ounce of nutrient in meat can easily be replicated through other means, other means which don't provide the excess fat that meat does. Iron? Protein? A diet with a good mix of beans or tofu (tofu isn't essential for vegetarians either, but some people love it, so don't let it scare you away) as well as eating some broccoli on occasion are healthy for you and give you those nutrients you're missing in meat.

It's harder to cook without meat

Lol? I've heard this argument before, and since we're all teenagers here I'm going to have to assume (yea, I'm sorry, assumptions suck but they exist for good reason sometimes) that very few of you cook often. Unless you actually constantly cook, any cooking is going to seem hard because if you're making a meal for a family it can get very hectic trying to do it all at once. So putting a chicken in the oven to roast with some potatoes, onions, stuffing, seems really is in comparison.

As someone who basically constantly cooks? Cooking vegetarian is hardly any different than with meat and often times even easier.

Eating vegetarian doesn't taste good

I used to have the misconception that being vegetarian meant eating icky food and stuff, and that nothing would ever taste good. Thing is, even vegetarians pig out on nachos once in a while, like any normal person is obligated (this cannot be argued, someone who doesn't eat nachos on occasion does not have a soul) to.

Things in my repertoire that count as main courses without meat include a bajillion types of soup, chile (*insert nom nom sounds here*), tofu sausage stir-fries (don't let the tofu part dissuade you, tofu sausage is not tofu and makes such an excellent substitute for sausage I'd rather have the tofu stuff than the meat kind, and always did even before I was a vegetarian), etc. etc. etc. There are so many ways to be creative and express yourself without meat. A great backup to this is that the second biggest cookbook in our house - and that's saying quite a bit - is completely vegetarian, and half the recipes in it are vegan too.

....It costs more?

No. I've had this said to me as well but it's just grasping at straws. It's not even more energy efficient, as I've stated, it takes 16 times the resources to produce an equal amount of meat or other product. So if we took all the meat in the world and multiplied its mass by 16 but turned it into something else, that would pretty much be world hunger gone, right there.

The rest comes down to a moral matter. You can compare the situation these animals are in to Africa. These animals are born into horrible, terrible situations which they have absolutely no control of. Hell, it's worse than Africa in that regard. People who are born into poverty have ways of getting out of it, and they have organizations who are constantly succeeding in helping them out. These animals have none of that.

They're born into shitholes they have no chance in hell of getting out of, live a short, horrible life and then are slaughtered for our pleasure. Not for our benefit, our pleasure, because I've outlined above there's no benefit to eating a meat-filled diet over a vegetarian one. If it's not necessary, it's just an extra.

And now put that in perspective, and you come to see why I give little respect to people who, once they've been shown what's really going on here, continue to eat meat for their pleasure and promote this fucked-up industrial hell that we've created for ourselves.

Normally I can keep myself quiet. But you called being vegetarian silly, so I had to set that straight, and I think I've turned it around to the point where I can confidently say, in a little twist of irony, that not eating vegetarian is silly.

[Perseus]

What you've all said is very... very arguable.

You really have no idea where meat comes from even from a butcher shop. I did research on the only one in town and found that it was meat that came from a source I know was certainly not wonderful. And you never know when a supplier is going to change, either. Unless their whole thing is being devoted to being morally correct, they're in it for the cash, and factory farms are cheap.

Now, about the vegetarians being silly:

I do agree with you; I didn't really get to say what exactly what I wanted to in that post since I was urged to go out for dinner.

To your second statement, I say such things since I'm biased to vegetarianism since I love meat. :P Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not a carnivore. I love salads, but that's about it for my vegetables. I'm a very picky eater and know I would not last on a vegetarian diet.

[Fruit_Tart.]

I do agree with you; I didn't really get to say what exactly what I wanted to in that post since I was urged to go out for dinner.

To your second statement, I say such things since I'm biased to vegetarianism since I love meat. :P Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not a carnivore. I love salads, but that's about it for my vegetables. I'm a very picky eater and know I would not last on a vegetarian diet.
Me either. if the world was filled with a meat catastrophe and all the meat was posioned i would turn vegetarian. I could possibly for a year, but not forever because i can't last without meat because i'm a dinosaur. hahaha. :P

And yeah it may be true that some butchers are just as bad as factory farms, but some butchers might be fully dedicated to keeping everyone healthy. Some of the meat i get is actually killed and butchered by myself and other family members, but i won't get into detail...

oh! labeling... do you guys think it actually matters to people if chemicals are labeled on food packages? i have to be honest i don't read them, but it could help if we were enforced to read the labels on those packages. i dunno, it's just a thought...

[Suicune]

When I saw this movie I swear to God I cried at least twice.
I really woke up and smelled the organic coffee.

I now don't eat anything I can't pronounce.
I try to eat organic. Which includes animals that have been allowed to graze. Eating corn is not grazing.
No more fruit drinks, other than organic juice.

I've also lost like 20 pounds by not eating crap! Literally!
Fast food...lolno. That's gone.
You have to see it. Seriously, you NEED TO SEE IT.

[Fruit_Tart.]

Seriously, you NEED TO SEE IT.
That's what i say too. It needs to be wayyy more out there for people to see.

I just finished watching "Super Size Me" a couple of minutes ago. OMG!!! wow... that made me super sized sick. i feel like throwing up. o.o

[Perseus]

I just finished watching "Super Size Me" a couple of minutes ago. OMG!!! wow... that made me super sized sick. i feel like throwing up. o.o

That movie portrays the stupidity of Americans quite well.

[Syvelocin]

Though I had previously been a vegetarian and never have had fast food other than salads at select restaurants, Food Inc. really woke me up.

I now only eat organic foods and I also force that on my friends and family as much as possible. Not like pure health food and such, but I make sure that when they get milk, eggs, meat, etc, they're giving their money to companies that treat their animals nicely. It's enough to have to look at a dead animal being eaten by someone else, let alone knowing that it was pumped with hormones, fed corn instead of grass, kept in cages or in horrible conditions... Food Inc. made be burst out in tears on numerous occasions...

I haven't seen Super Size Me, but I might be renting it sometime soon. I don't know the fast food situation quite that well, though restaurants like McDonald's just make me sick for some reason, just thinking about the crap that they might be puttting in their food. I'm also a big documentary addict.

[Suicune]

That's what i say too. It needs to be wayyy more out there for people to see.

I just finished watching "Super Size Me" a couple of minutes ago. OMG!!! wow... that made me super sized sick. i feel like throwing up. o.o

Even the title sounds disgusting.